Federal mediator steps in once again to try and avert ports strike

A federal mediator has brokered an eleventh-hour meeting to try to head off an end-of year dockworkers strike at East and Gulf coast ports.

With talks between the International Longshoremen's Association and shipping executives stalled and the master contract for the union's workers set to expire Dec. 29, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service director George H. Cohen on Monday organized the last-ditch meeting less than a week before a work stoppage.

Cohen already intervened once in an effort to help broker a deal between the ILA and the business group, United States Maritime Alliance. In September he asked both parties to return to the bargaining table, and they eventually agreed to extend the contract, and the negotiations, to the end of the year, avoiding a strike that would have disrupted shipping during peak pre-holiday months.

In a statement released Monday, Cohen offered few details about the meeting, except that the sides both agreed to attend. He did not say when or where it would take place, or what would be discussed, and he said he would have no further statement "due to the sensitive nature of the negotiations."

The two sides have reportedly been deadlocked over a management proposal to cap container royalty payments – fees collected at ports stretching from Maine to Texas that are based on container tonnage, and paid out to qualifying dockworkers as a supplement to regular wages.

In recent weeks, business groups and ILA representatives have both been pessimistic about the chances of an agreement or another extension.

One business group, the National Federation of Retailers, and Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott have even pre-emptively asked President Barack Obama to invoke the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. The law gives the White House the authority to order striking workers to return to work for 80 days, if a strike is deemed to create a national emergency.

Although a work stoppage at the ports would slow down activity at Hampton Roads' container terminals, certain types of work not covered under the ILA master contract would continue, including the handling of automobile carriers and other break bulk cargo.